DMG – Live the Dream
Skittering glitchy rave from Daniel McGurty, aka DMG, now based in Edinburgh but a native of Blackburn. McGurty is painting with a delicate brush here, sketching around an absence of overt dancefloor kick/bass spine, but these two tracks from his upcoming album Live the Dream nonetheless evoke plenty of nostalgia for UK hardcore and rave. Blackburn was the epicenter of illegal raving in the UK in the late 80s and early 90s. Kids making great use of all the abandoned mills and factories that followed Thatcher’s hollowing-out of the industrial core of Northern English society is the perfect historic encapsulation of how and why raving was birthed as a response to economic insecurity and the chaotic approach of a post-industrial world. That large-scale raving has now become hijacked by tertiary and quinary sector corporate interests — a product to be delivered by hospitality and media companies, owned by the very sorts of global capital firms that pulled the plug on Western manufacturing in the first place — is ironic, or at least paradoxical. But where stadium-sized, glossy, befeathered spectacles are not much more than parody — and the music designed for them tends to be too — McGurty is instead paying sincere and affectionate homage to the history of his community here, without doing something retro. The album is out July 23rd, but you can grab the first two singles on bandcamp now (or find them for streaming)
DMG – “Live the Dream”
DMG – “The Rebirth Continues”
Self Tape – London Baby
In keeping with loving tributes to UK dance music culture, next up is a romantic ode to late nights in London by Sydney’s Self Tape (Stuart McNair), whose music I’ve featured a couple of times previously. As has been my experience with all of McNair’s music, he manages to coax something atypical out of all of his songs, many of which at first blush could appear to be straightforward emotional dance music or “cry music” as I’ve increasingly seen that sort of thing described (who thought of that term? it’s not good). Much of this sort of emotional house stuff really doesn’t ask much of the listener — four to the floor with some shuffle and a nice sentimental chord progression can take you pretty far, and I’m not totally against picking that kind of low-hanging fruit sometimes; it’s fair enough. But McNair manages to consistently take an initial simple idea like that, and stretch it a bit further, whether through surprising sound design, unexpected arrangement, or some kind of calculated risk. He’s a step above a lot of the folks pulling these easy wins. No bandcamp for this, unfortunately, but McNair was nice enough to let me post the mp3 for you all here. You can find the release streaming at all the usual spots.
Self Tape – “London Baby”
Heitech & LUI – Rise with the Lark
Last up tonight, a quirky, psychedelic bit of 2-step, honoring the impressive songflights of the lark. Male Larks spiral high into the air — sometimes hundreds of feet — singing continuously for minutes to mark their territory and attract potential mates. We should all be so dilligent in our dedication to our musical craft. This is from Heitech (Hamburg-based Heiko Bader), along with LUI (Marcus Lowtrap, also from Germany). While it’s tongue-in-cheek, it’s also totally satisfying stuff, blending sugary synth work and pleasantly distorted rhythm with weird new age jazz and self-help music. Can’t be too mad at that. Not to mention, the b-side of this honors the most famous bird in dance music history, the loon. Grab these on bandcamp or find them for streaming.
Heitech & LUI – “Rise with the Lark”
Heitech & LUI – “Dawn by the Loon”